Some people leave footprints on our heart.
Cats leave fur on our sweaters.
Dogs leave drool on our shoes.
Families will crap on our doorstep.
So when life gives you crap, garden it and make roses.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Sweet dreams tonight

You all want to know what tops the icky list drawn up by the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University, yes you do, you know you do.

Top of the heap for this year is the Darwin Bark spider. Discovered in Madagascar, it weaves a monster web up to 82 feet wide. Feel the fear.

The bug that eats iron and was found in the wreckage of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic makes it into the top three. Halamonas Titanicae is its Latin name and it's hopeful it could be useful in the disposal of old ships.

Then there's Tyrannobdella rex - a leech found in a woman's nose. That's enough, not going anywhere near that.

And the Louisiana pancake batfish that hops on its wings.

According to the Director of the Institute, there is about 10 million species remaining to be described, named and classified before the diversity and complexity of the biosphere is understood.

River, you must have seen photos of the bow of the Titanic with the rusticles flowing down the sides. All that is from a bacterium which is slowly consuming the iron while leaving woodwork inside the ship intact.

Jayne, leeches, my least favourite of all things crawling and I couldn't even go looking for research on this one.

No-One, I assume you like the film 'Arachnophbia', one of my favourites but not in real life. The awesome thing is that it's just been discovered.